New Post?!!

Summer: Relaxed and exciting at the same time. Working for Abbott Vascular was one of the best experiences of my life. To be honest, I was a little nervous before the internship--I didn't know if I could measure up. But I was able to get some projects finished and got some important ones started, so I was pleasantly surprised at what I was able to accomplish.

Southern California in the summer was awesome. My roommate was this funky-fresh, tell-it-like-it-is Berkeley Bio-E student. The other interns were intelligent, fun-loving college students who all shared amazing work ethics, but still had a lot of levity about them. Sure, there were disagreements sometimes, but we were able to deal with them as engineers--with level heads and critical thinking...

School has been a mixture of extreme frustration and intense learning. I have some top-notch professors this semester, and also some professors whose teaching "styles" make me cringe during every lecture. It's difficult to imagine that an institution that can have so much of the good kind of professor can also have a few bad ones, but I guess that's life.

The SWE conference was this past weekend as well--that was pretty great. I love Chicago; it was great to be back with a bunch of bright young women and professionals. I enjoy my role in SWE--being internal vice president has a few responsibilities, but it's mostly a relaxed work-load. Also, I love working with the other officers, and helping us to bond. It's great to see a group of 17 young women work and succeed together.

Church stuff has been going well--we've been trying some interfaith kind of stuff, and I've taken a lot out of it. Last week, we met with members of Hillel to worship with them. A few weekends ago, we worshiped with Muslim students on campus. I feel that the more I learn about different religions and how different peoples' spiritual experiences are, the more connected I feel with the unknown. It's definitely eye-opening.

Books: Michel de Montaigne's collected essays and I Found This to be Funny. I tend to not want to invest all of my time into an entire novel--short stories and essays are kind of my thing. Both of these books have these and read fairly easily. I had to read Montaigne's essays for my French philosophy course, and even though he was writing in the late 15th and early 16th century, some of his views are still prevalent today. He's an entertaining writer, and his ideas span the gamut: he writes about sex, religion, education, and aging, to name a few topics. The book is huge, but even just reading a little made me think differently about these topics.
I Found This to be Funny I'm reading at a friend's request. I've been craving short stories recently, and this collection is both entertaining, intriguing, and well written. I'm enjoying reading a little every night before nodding off. Not all of the stories are funny, but there's truth in every story.

That's all for now--keep yer stick on the ice...